NATURAL RESOURCES AND INTRA-STATE CONFLICTS IN WEST AFRICA AFTER THE COLD WAR

Africa was a theatre of conflicts at the end of the Cold War and West Africa was the epicentre of destructive intra-state conflicts. The massive humanitarian catastrophe and the destabilising effect of civil wars necessitated inquiries on the causes of persistent civil wars in the developing world. Among the several studies of the phenomenon in Africa, the findings of Collier and Hoffler (2000) emerged as the most influential explanation. In their seminal study, Collier and Hoffler (2000) argued that it is greed for resources and not grievances that are the cause of conflicts in resource endowed countries in the developing world. In recent decades, the correlation between resource wealth and wars has held sway as the dominant perspective on the prevalence of conflicts in developing countries. Conflicts in Africa and the West Africa sub-region were explained through this paradigm. This paper is a contribution to the extant knowledge on the nexus between natural resources and conflicts in resource-rich countries in West Africa. Data was sourced from secondary materials: internet sources, textbooks, magazines and newspapers. The paper found that though natural resources were not the primary cause of conflicts in West Africa, these resources were however responsible for fueling and sustaining conflicts in the sub-region. Redesigning the security architecture of states to improve policing; addressing environmental and resource allocation grievances; address citizenship crisis of nomadic herders; implement unbiased policies in the settlement of herder-farmer tensions and the establishment of state-level institutional framework to facilitate peaceful settlement of herder-farmer disputes were recommended as solutions to conflicts in West Africa.